It wasn’t hackers: Alaska Airlines reveals IT outage was caused by a critical piece of hardware failing

Alaska Airlines has revealed that its "significant" IT outage on Sunday night was not caused by hackers, but by hardware at one of its data centers failing.

As a result of the system paralysis, the carrier requested a system-wide ground stop for its aircraft and that of its subsidiary, Horizon Air, on Sunday evening, with services resuming about three hours later.

The airline had initially remained tight-lipped about the causes of the malfunction, with Microsoft flagging on Sunday that there were "active attacks" on server software used by businesses, Reuters reported.

It added that Google and Palo Alto Networks have been warning that the "Scattered Spider" teen hacking group has an interest in the aviation sector, and the outage followed a cyber attack on Hawaiian Airlines, part of the Alaska Air Group, in June.

The airline said in a statement issued to The Independent: "A critical piece of multi-redundant hardware at one of our data centers, manufactured by a third-party, experienced an unexpected failure.

"When that happened, it impacted several of our key systems that enable us to run various operations, necessitating the implementation of a ground stop to keep aircraft in position."

It continued: "The IT outage is not related to any other current events, and it's not connected to the recent cybersecurity incident at Hawaiian Airlines.

"We are currently working with our vendor to replace the hardware equipment at the data center."

The airline revealed that since Sunday evening, it had cancelled more than 150 flights, including 64 on Monday.

It added: "We're working to get our operations back on track today at Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air. [But] additional flight disruptions are likely as we reposition aircraft and crews throughout our network.

"We appreciate the patience of our guests whose travel plans have been disrupted. We're working to get them to their destinations as quickly as we can. Before heading to the airport, we encourage flyers to check their flight status."

In the aftermath of the disruption, passengers took to social media to complain about delays and a lack of customer service.

X user Jack Gillin wrote: "Why haven't you answered my customer care calls? It's been more than four hours since I made my inquiry."

Another complained: "Been on the phone on hold with your customer services for almost three hours and no one has picked up."

Another revealed that after waiting for a flight for five hours, it was cancelled, with the airline unable to help with booking local accommodation.

Passengers who experienced a delay are entitled to a rebooking on the same airline or a partner carrier at no additional cost.

If the delay is longer than three hours, they are entitled to a meal or meal voucher and complimentary hotel stays for overnight delays.

This is because IT outages have been deemed "controllable" by the US Department of Transportation.

Airlines are not obliged to compensate passengers due to events outside their control, such as storms or bird strikes.